the bosses SMEs has filed a complaint with the Ombudsman and has urged him to investigate whether employment platforms discriminate based on age in their selection and intermediation processes. The request will be registered by the president of the business organization of SMEs, Jose Maria Torres, this Friday, as confirmed by EL PERIÓDICO. In it, it demands to prohibit the publication of job offers that include ageist language.
According to the latest data published by the Active Population Survey (EPA) from the INE, four out of 10 unemployed in Spain they have over 45 years. Unemployment among the most veteran layers is a relatively new reality in the Spanish labor market. To the point that a decade ago the proportion of ‘senior’ unemployed was half what it is today. As a result of the brick crisis and the financial bubble of 2008, thousands of people over 45 lost their jobs, were thrown out of the labor market and have not been able to re-enlist.
The ‘seniors’ are one of the groups, along with young people, migrants and women, systematically identified as difficult labor insertion in the elaboration of active employment policies. Why? Many companies anticipate in these profiles demands for high salaries, lack of digital skills, difficulty in learning the organizational and work culture of a new company, family responsibilities or other prejudices. Prejudices known as ‘ageism’.
And from Conpymes they denounce that temporary work or personnel recruitment companies bias their algorithms and selection processes to prioritize the youngest profiles and ignore the most veteran ones. “This violation of rights has serious repercussions for the country’s economy, not only through consumption, but also through tax collection and competitiveness. Let’s not forget that the group is the livelihood of minors of training age, who see their opportunities reduced by the impoverishment of their parents & rdquor ;, warn from Conpymes.
Veteran karateka against ageism
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The fight against discrimination based on age is one of the crusades that Torres has defended during his professional career. After the outbreak of covid, this former karate world champion promoted the campaign #NoAgeDiscrimination, with the aim of raising awareness among their business colleagues. Before, in 2015 he won a Gaudí Award –as producer- for the short film ‘The corridor‘, a film in which a bankrupt businessman and a worker he fired reflect on the lack of opportunities for veterans who lose their footing in the final stretch of their career.
“At Conpymes, the national confederation of SMEs, which represents more than 2 million SMEs and the self-employed, we understand that it is urgent to develop specific legislation, with inspection and sanctioning capacity, and to ensure effective protection of the rights of the collective” , they have transferred him to the Ombudsman in his complaint.